About 2:10 a.m., on February 24, 1978, 19 cars and a locomotive unit of Auto-Train No. 4 derailed on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad trackage at Florence, South Carolina. Twenty-four of the 503 passengers were injured. The total accident damage was estimated to be $774,029. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was a locomotive unit axle fracture that originated in an undetected void that developed during the manufacture of the axle. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the lack of a system for detecting an axle failure independent of crewmembers' inspection.
Railroad Accident Report - Derailment of Auto-Train No. 4 on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Florence, South Carolina, February 24, 1978
1978
27 pages
Report
No indication
English